Pardes Restaurant‘s Chef/Owner, Moshe Wendel, opened this new eatery on October the 24th (497 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11217; Tel: 718.797.3880), barely three weeks ago. Chef Moshe’s culinary talents and passion for food, along with the friendly enthusiasm of his tight-knit staff result in a successful venture. Through the years, he carefully and methodically honed his skills. Starting out as a dishwasher at age 16, he climbed through the ranks through various prestigious establishments such as Philadelphia’s celebrated Django restaurant. Moshe and his wife Shana became ba’alei tshuvah, and rushed back east to cook for Mosaica and Mike’s Bistro. He opened Basil as Executive Chef, stayed there for a short while, and is now fulfilling his own dream of owning a top kosher restaurant.

Small, warm, very welcoming

Moshe had a clear vision for Pardes. Located in an area filled with art galleries, bookstores, fashion shops and assorted eateries featuring every kind of cuisine, Pardes became an extension of the chic, upscale, urban cool mix. My companion (SYR could not make it this time) and I got there at around 3:00pm, Lunch to Dinner transition time…

Close-up of one of the Spicy-Smoked Chicken "Wings" With red Pepper-Saffron Vinaigrette

Check this out! A real treat for the taste buds! We were instructed to place the meat into our mouths and then press the spice filled pipette releasing the wonderful burst of flavours… Pretty outrageous!

For the mains we shared both the Pizza of Beef Tongue Confi, With 24 Hour Roasted Tomato and Fresh Basil….

Pizza Beef Tongue Confi

…and the Short Ribs & Broccoli Rabe Lasagne. The meat Pizza tasted sinfully delicious; the thin crust and beef tongue confi made the cheese topped pizzas, I’m used to, almost irrelevant. The Short Ribs Lasagne, was unusually tasty but had a rather limp presentation compared to the other dishes we sampled.

For dessert, we had the (“Manna” Bee Pollen Dusted Angel Food, Quince, Honey Ice Cream, Sugared Almonds and Olive Oil Cake, Chocolate Flan, Espresso Flavored Marron Glaces) all quite tasty – even gifted – although presentation was lack-luster. All in all, we were treated to an outstanding meal and each of us gave it two big thumbs up! In a lesser restaurant we might even have praised the minor negatives we encountered here.

Next time I’ll order from their ample beer selection, as well.

I was very gratified to see our favorite Chef, Lévana, shares our overall view after going to Pardes the evening after we did.

Any faithful reader of this blog knows we have never reviewed pizza joints or take out places of any kind; we always confined our reviews to restaurants AND, even then, only to those establishments we could really rave about. So how come, today, I am reviewing a take out place? Why the sudden break from The Kosher Scene‘s usual practice? Truth be told, I never intended to deviate from our ways, however…

Yesterday afternoon, I passed by Sason Grill and the aroma emanating from the place (I’ve been blessed, or cursed, with a very strong sense of smell) suddenly made me hungry. It’s a tiny place, located on a side street off Brooklyn’s Avenue J (1012 East 15th Street; Brooklyn, NY 11230; Tel: 347.307.6647; under the hashgocho of Kehilla Kashrus), off the main street and very easy to miss. It looks extremely unpretentious, hardly enticing, but… don’t let appearances fool you!

Their menu includes only four items: Shawarma, Schnitzel, Falafel, and Hamburger. I ordered a Shawarma Sandwich Platter.

Juicy shawarma on the spit...

It came with two falafel balls, fried potatoes (cut Argentinian style, papas fritas we call them), and grape tomatoes on the plate – and a pickle, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant and tehina with the shawarma inside the pita – as you can see below:

Shawarma Sandwich Platter

The shawarma, made from fresh baby chicken meat, was very juicy; spiced liberally to give it that Middle Eastern flavor of cumin, etc, it was unusually delicious. I got a selection of the three house sauces: chimichurri, olive and tehina. All three made fresh in-house. The best part about this unexpected feast was, surprisingly, its low cost. Though it certainly lacked the presentation I’ve become accustomed to, it more than made up for it in flavor. I know I’ll be back again and again. Next time, I’ll even bring SYR with me.